"And when they ask us what we're doing, you can say, We're remembering...." (Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451)

Friday, January 30, 2009

SMALL WORLD

The New York Observer has a feature on Rob Sedgwick's path from Upper East Side privileged WASP marijuna dealer (tip: If you're going to be arrested for drugs, be white, rich and connected to a major society family; it helps) to working New York actor to the proprieter of Stogo, an organic, dairy-free vegan “ice cream parlor” on East 10th Street in Manhattan.

Along the way, Sedgwick made his television debut on Another World in 1984, playing a rich, obnoxious preppie named Hunter Bradshaw (one presumes that if arrested for dealing, Hunter would fare just as well at the hands of the law as his portrayer). Donna Love wished that her "sister" Marley would date a proper young man like Hunter, instead of the boy she really had her eye on -- working-class Ben McKinnon.

Interestingly enough, two years earlier, Rob's real-life sister, actress Kyra Sedgwick, had made her own television debut, also on Another World!

At seventeen years old, she was playing Julia Shearer, the adopted daughter of Susan Matthews and Dan Shearer, granddaughter of that Bay City grand-dame, Liz Matthews.

Ambitious Julia quickly got herself a part in A View of the Bay, the movie based on Jamie Frame's scandalous tell-all about his home-town, by sleeping with the director. When the movie fell through, Julia became the assistant to glamorous romance novelist Felicia Gallant. Eager to emulate her mentor, Julia penned a book of her own -- unfortunately, she based it on her cousin Sally's secret past as a mother who'd given her baby up for adoption only to learn that the child's natural father and his wife had claimed the boy as their own. Liz was furious at what she saw as Julia airing their family's dirty laundry in print, but Julia refused to back down.

By this point, Kyra Sedgwick had left AW for college. She would go on to a spectacular movie, television and theatrical career. In fact, in 1998, Kyra appeared in the Lincoln Center production of Twelfth Night opposite Brian Murray who, from 1978 to 1979, played Julia's father, Dan Shearer, on AW!

In 1983, the role of Julia was recast with another young actress destined for prime-time -- Faith Ford.

After leaving AW in 1984, she went on to play Corky on Murphy Brown, and star opposite fellow daytime alum, Kelly Ripa, on Hope & Faith (created by ex-B&B leading lady, Joanna Johnson).